True Blue

CHAPTER 93

ROY HUDDLED in a corner of the room with Mace while the Captain sat staring vacantly at the wall and wiping goo off his mouth.

Roy said, “Maybe she’s right. Maybe I am j.v.”

Mace punched him in the arm. “Let’s get one rule down, Mona is never right.”

“The Captain deserves the best representation, Mace. I didn’t even focus on the material witness issue. And it was big enough to drive a truck through. I would’ve gone in tomorrow and gotten my head handed to me. By Mona and the judge.”

“The Captain wants you.”

“Come on, he doesn’t know what he wants. Other than Twinkies.”

“You can do this, Roy. You might be a little rusty on some of the case law, and you didn’t focus on the material witness angle because you knew you were innocent and you wanted to help the Captain.”

“You can’t rep a defendant charged with murder in the first with any rust, Mace. There’s no room for error. Especially against Mona. I know you hate the woman and I do too, but she’s sharp.”

“And she’s totally unethical. She basically bribed the Captain with junk food and cleavage.”

“But that makes her even more dangerous.”

“The point is, Roy, you made the decision to rep him. Your firm canned your ass over it. So do you want to go crawling to them begging for your big-dollar job back? And let a homeless vet be assigned some Perry Mason wannabe who could give a shit if the guy spends the rest of his life in the can? Is that what you want?”

“Of course not,” Roy said hotly.

“Then what’s the problem? Mona just laid down the challenge. She’s gonna kick your ass. Okay, fine. But I don’t see a guy who’s so competitive that he has as his computer password the last score of his college basketball career just turning the other cheek on this. But this time it’s not just a game. And the Captain needs you. He needs you, Roy.”

Roy looked at Mace, then at the Captain, then back at Mace. “Okay, but I’ll need help to dig up some useful stuff.”

“Consider it done.”

“You? But you’re going to Newark tomorrow to run down this Meldon lead.”

“This Meldon lead may point us to whoever killed Diane.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“I don’t know what to believe right now. But I can’t afford to cut corners on this.”

“Fair enough.”

“So you’re good to go on this?”

“I am.”

“Then I guess I can tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Beth had Lowell Cassell call me on my way over here.”

“And?”

“And there was no yolk buffer in the sperm found in Diane. It didn’t come from Potomac Cryobank.”

He glanced over at the Captain, who was picking something out of his teeth.

“Okay, gut check time. Do you think he did it?”

Mace looked over at the old soldier too. “I talked to Beth about that. She said she agreed there was some strange stuff going on with Diane and your law firm. But she also said her murder could be entirely unrelated to all of it. That it could have just been a crime of opportunity.”

“So you think he did it?”

“No, Roy, I don’t.”

“Then how the hell does all this make sense?”

“It makes perfect sense. We just have to figure out how.”